Moments like these—pandemics, depressions, wars—often mark historic turning points when fundamental changes become possible.
Category: Corporations
A new mathematics curriculum guide is set to drop this September in Ontario, the first update since 2005. Not only will students be heading back to the basics, they’ll also be introduced to a new “strand” of learning: financial literacy. The reason I’m so excited about this development is that…
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This article was originally posted on National Newswatch The Trudeau government recently signed an agreement with Amazon to distribute essential medical supplies across Canada in partnership with publicly owned Canada Post and Purolator. Its dependence on Amazon at time of crisis—a corporation with dangerously unsafe workplaces, and an aggressive anti-union…
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Mel Watkins was a towering intellect whose body of work shaped the thinking of generations of students, scholars, politicians, journalists and activists, myself included. As a professor of political economy at the University of Toronto, Mel rejected the arcane pose of the economics profession. His writing was lucid, elegant and…
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Here are some quick thoughts on the extensive package of emergency measures announced today by Prime Minister Trudeau, Finance Minister Morneau, and Bank of Canada Governor Poloz: The Pros: The government has worked quickly and creatively to find ways to deliver support to Canadians, and fast – using the infrastructure…
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Financial markets missed the memo about not panicking over COVID-19. They panicked, big time: several days of gut-wrenching drops that wiped more than 10% (or US$7 trillion) from worldwide valuations. The meltdown quickly caught the attention of policy-makers, who are now moving heaven and earth to reassure financiers their money…
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Implementing legislation for the new Canada–U.S.–Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) is now before the House of Commons. While the U.S. and Mexico have already ratified the deal, our parliamentarians can still examine the 2,000-page text, which will have lasting impacts on many matters far beyond trade. The opposition parties have called for…
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Indifference, said Antonio Gramsci, is “the mainspring of history.” By that he meant it is not the active few who determine what comes to pass, for better or worse, but “the absenteeism of the many.” The indifferent masses, he said, “allow the knots to form that in time only a…
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Canada recently dodged a bullet when the House Democrats negotiated the removal of extended periods of monopoly protection for biologic drugs, such as treatments for Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis, from the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The Parliamentary Budgetary Officer estimated that these changes, if they’d gone ahead, would have cost Canadians…
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The Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes—Lion Air in Indonesia in October 2018 and five months later, Ethiopian Airlines in Addis Ababa —killed 346 including 18 Canadians. Comparisons with the July 6, 2013 Lac-Mégantic oil train disaster reveal a predictable pattern. A runaway oil train laden with volatile Bakken shale oil…
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